9 Wet Spots 2020
Where are we after 11 years ?
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9 Cardinal & Hand Clinics - Oakley Green Road & Dedworth Road
From the relative high ground of Tarbay Lane water heads north towards the Thames taking various routes through the dwellings south of the Dedworth Road. Once it reaches Dedworth Road there is really no sensible onward route and it gushes into the car park of the Greene Oak and out from under the road into the grounds of The Cardinal Clinic (A) where the existing fairly substantial route through the site is often overwhelmed.

This is the most difficult of all the “wet spots” to deal with and we have been able to achieve absolutely nothing here. It is very disheartening that a Streetcare officer once said that although he had worked for RBWM for 5 years he was not aware of any flooding in this area. Really ?

Once rainfall abates water levels generally fall speedily - much more quickly than in the past. This would suggest that some work by Streetcare to maintain the onward flow has been beneficial. But it also suggests that there is probably little we can ask for to improve onward flow. A major detailed survey will be needed and technical propositions for major storm drain works under the roads to take the water more efficiently towards and under the A308 to the Thames and-or to try and hold water back to delay the flow. It seems very unlikely that funding for such a scale of work will ever be provided by local government.

The best possibility for a short term improvement for the Cardinal Clinic might be to constrain the pressured inflow at A so that it can no longer escape north east, and divert a percentage of it to a holding pond or small lake (B). This might be created on what appears to be unused or paddock land at the corner of Oakley Green and Dedworth Road. The outflow from here could be taken north to join the existing route at (C).

It has recently come to light that the area between the A308 and the Dedworth Road and also south of Dedworth Road is being considered for development. Good Luck to whoever ends up trying to build on this land !